Malta hopes to close another three chapters by June

by Ivan Brincat

Enlargement negotiations scheduled to be held last Friday were postponed due to what the Swedish presidency called “technical problems”.
This might come as a blessing for Malta as no chapters were expected to be closed during the meeting last week but the government is now hoping to close three chapters by the end of June.
The talks were postponed with Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovenia but talks with the other countries, namely Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia went on as planned last Thursday.
Foreign Affairs minister Joe Borg said Malta hoped to close three chapters under the Swedish presidency referring to the chapters on free movement of goods, freedom to provide services and energy.
The government is aiming to close more chapters under the Belgian presidency which starts on 1 July. Among the chapters to be negotiated are transport, social policy, justice and home affairs and free movement of persons.
Dr Borg told The Malta Business Weekly he hoped the chapters on fisheries, free movement of capital, competition and environment would be closed by December.
A reason given for the delay in the meetings was that the European Union was not sufficiently prepared for the round of talks.
Various diplomats from candidate countries have implied that EU negotiators were counting on an early agreement on worker movement but had neglected work on the other chapters. To avoid possible embarrassment, the Swedish presidency asked leading countries to postpone the meeting for two weeks.
During the meetings held last Thursday Baltic state countries caught up in their negotiations and have also closed some chapters that are considered difficult like that on the free movement of capital.
Lithuania, for example, closed talks on company law and free movement of goods raising its tally of closed chapters to 15 out of a total of 31, the same as first-wave countries Poland and the Czech Republic. (See table below)
Latvia on the other hand closed free movement of capital, an area deemed to be very tricky for Malta.
Meanwhile Slovakia managed to close four chapters, bringing its tally up to 16. The Slovaks closed the chapter on the freedom to provide services, company law, social policy and employment and telecommunications and IT.
Cyprus, however lead the pack with 21 out of 31 negotiation chapters closed. Slovenia and Estonia have both closed 18 chapters.
The postponed meeting has now been rescheduled for 1 June.
If Malta closes the three chapters in question, they would be the first in which Malta would have requested a transition period and would have been accepted even though such requests are technical and thus do not pose any problems. If so Malta would have closed 16 chapters, the same as Slovakia and just ahead of Lithuania and Latvia.

ibrincat@independent.com.mt